Date:	Tuesday 15 April 2025
Time:	21:40
Type:	Airbus A321-271NX
Owner/operator:	Frontier Airlines
Registration:	N607FR
MSN:	11195
Year of manufacture:	2022
Engine model:	P&W PW1133G-JM
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 235
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Minor
Category:	Serious incident
Location:	San Juan-Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU/TJSJ) -   Puerto Rico
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Orlando International Airport, FL (MCO/KMCO)
Destination airport:	San Juan-Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU/TJSJ)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities

Narrative:
On April 15, 2025, about 2140, Atlantic daylight time (ADT), Frontier Airlines, flight 3506, an Airbus A321-271NX, N607FR, sustained nose wheel and engine damage during an attempted landing at the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU), San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 235 passengers and crew onboard were uninjured. The flight was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 scheduled domestic passenger flight from Orlando International Airport (MCO), Orlando, Florida to SJU.

According to the flight crew, the first officer (FO) was the pilot flying, and the captain was the pilot monitoring during the night flight to SJU. The approach was stable but required a slight lateral correction to maintain centerline while descending through about 150 to 100 feet above ground level (agl) on approach to runway 10.

An aural RETARD alert is designed to occur at a radio altitude (RA) of 20 ft on manual landing to advise the flight crew to reduce the thrust levers to idle. The FO recalled that during the approach, she brought the thrust levers back to idle at 20 ft RA while the RETARD aural alert sounded.

The captain recalled that the landing flare began normally but became high at about 15 ft RA. The FO stated that around 15 ft RA, the captain noted that the aircraft was too high, so she corrected with a shallow descent and then a gradual flare. As the aircraft was about to touch down, the captain called for a go-around. The captain stated that he believed the aircraft was “running out of flying speed quickly, as the throttles were retarded and the pitch attitude was increasing” so he assumed control. He recalled that the airplane was slightly nose down with the thrust at the takeoff/go-around (TOGA) setting when the airplane then touched down firmly.

The captain stated that during the go-around, they heard a loud bang coming from under the fuselage and the FO called out that an engine failure was displayed on the electronic centralized aircraft monitor (ECAM) display.

The air traffic control tower (ATCT) controller reported an engine fire, but according to the flight crew, they only had an indication of an engine failure. Unsure of the damage sustained, the captain asked for a foreign object debris (FOD) sweep of the runway and a description of any debris found. Some metal and tire debris were found on the runway and reported to the flight crew.

The captain stated that he flew a low pass by the ATCT to see if the controllers could determine if all three landing gear appeared to be down. The ATCT controller reported that the landing gear was intact, and the flight crew prepared for a visual approach to runway 8. At touchdown, the airplane behaved normally so the captain elected to clear the runway and set the parking brake as the fire department approached to inspect the number one engine for any fire. No fire was present, and the captain elected to coordinate for airstairs to deplane the aircraft rather than using the evacuation slides. He felt there was no threat to life and the slides posed a greater danger to passengers than the airstairs. He also noted that there were 8 wheelchair passengers on board. The passengers were unloaded via airstairs and bussed to the terminal.

Data recovered from the FDR revealed that the airplane initially touched down on all three landing gear with a maximum recorded vertical acceleration of about 2.2g. This value is above the hard landing threshold of 1.8g per Frontier Airlines aircraft maintenance manual (AMM) Chapter 5 limitations.

A post incident inspection of the airplane revealed that the nose landing gear (NLG) left wheel and tire had separated from its axle and departed the aircraft after the initial hard landing (figure 2). One of the wheel halves had fractured and there were numerous scratches and gouges noted on the NLG along with damage to the tow fitting. Metal fragments from the wheel assembly appear to have been ingested by the number one (left) engine and damage was found on the engine's inlet cowl liner, thrust reverser, fan blades, and guide vanes. The left inboard trailing edge flaps were also damaged. None of this damage met the definition of substantial damage or affected the flight control system of the airplane.

On May 5-6, 2025, the operational factors group, with assistance from an NTSB Human Performance Specialist convened in Denver, Colorado. The group interviewed the Frontier airlines flight crew, the Director of Training and the Director of Operations.

In January 2021, an article titled “A Focus on the Landing Flare” was published by Airbus in their Safety First magazine. The article analyzes two case studies to highlight operational pitfalls and reinforce best practices during the flare phase of landing. You can read the full article on Airbus’s official Safety First website here: A Focus on the Landing Flare.

The investigation continues.

TJSJ 160156Z 09007KT 10SM FEW028 SCT065 26/23 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP162 T02560228
TJSJ 160056Z 10003KT 10SM FEW025 SCT060 25/23 A3001 RMK AO2 SLP160 T02500233

NTSB
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n607fr#39e94ff5
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/FFT3506/history/20250415/2255Z/KMCO/TJSJ

Sent to me by a friend.
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“Slammed the plane on the runway broke the nose tire off ingested it while doing the go. around, full engine fire to failure. Held, did a single engine approach to a go around and then landed the third time.” https://t.co/rtXa686ckr pic.twitter.com/bDbACApCXK

— Combat Learjet (@Combat_learjet) April 16, 2025

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Apr-2025 18:49	ASN	Added
17-Apr-2025 05:35	ASN	Updated [Embed code, ]
20-May-2025 16:24	Captain Adam	Updated [Total occupants, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category, Accident report, ]
22-May-2025 05:34	ASN	Updated [Damage, ]